VIENNA, Austria — The head of the U.N. atomic watchdog agency said Monday a deal on Iran’s suspect nuclear program could be only a few days away, making U.N. Security Council action unneeded.

International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei did not elaborate. But his optimism was believed to be linked to a confidential Russian proposal to allow Iran to enrich some uranium domestically, diplomats said. They spoke on condition of anonymity.

“I am still very much hopeful that in the next week, an agreement could be reached,” ElBaradei told reporters.

However, the plan, which Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov planned to discuss with officials in Washington, was expected to meet strong U.S. resistance over fears it could be misused to make nuclear weapons.

The Russia proposal would allow Tehran to conduct small-scale enrichment and ask the IAEA to set the parameters of such activity to minimize the chances of abuse.

In return, the diplomats said Iran would be asked to recommit to in-depth IAEA probes of its program on short notice — something Tehran canceled last month after the agency’s 35-nation board voted Feb. 4 to alert the Security Council by passing on Iran’s nuclear dossier resulting from almost three years of agency investigations.

Russia and China, which have economic and strategic ties with Iran, voted with the majority of IAEA board members but insisted the council do nothing until after this week’s IAEA meeting in Vienna.

Moscow, with the support of the United States and other countries, has offered to enrich Iran’s uranium in Russia, which would ensure greater oversight. But Tehran, insisting its goals are peaceful, has said it should be free to carry out some enrichment domestically.

The Russian proposal was driving a wedge into what had been a relatively united front on uranium enrichment, with Germany cautiously supportive and France and Britain opposed and backing the United States.

John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in New York that the United States would oppose any enrichment on Iranian soil.

“It’s been a core element of our view and the view of the European three, and certainly of the Russian Federation that no enrichment in Iran is permissible,” Bolton said.

He said “even small so-called research enrichment programs could give Iran the possibility of mastering the technical deficiencies that it’s currently encountering in its program” and translate them into large-scale enrichment later.

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns underlined U.S. determination, saying in Washington that “unless Iran does a dramatic about-face,” he expected the issue to be taken up by the Security Council.

France, Britain and Germany broke off negotiations on behalf of the European Union with Iran last year after it resumed enrichment-related activities, which can make both nuclear fuel and the fissile core of warheads. Since then, those three countries, as well as the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan, have been at the forefront of efforts to have the Security Council take up the issue.

The diplomats said negotiations continued on the sidelines of a board meeting of the IAEA, which began Monday and would focus on Iran later in the week.

A senior European diplomat the deal would likely stand or fall “on the response Lavrov gets in Washington” in a meeting later Monday with Secretary of State Conzoleezza Rice and other senior administration officials.

But he said all involved — whether or not they supported allowing Iran some control of enrichment — were firm on the need for Tehran to first return to a freeze of all such activities for a prolonged time “to re-establish confidence.”

He said the Russians had proposed eight years — something unlikely to be accepted by the Iranians who publicly reject calls for a return to a freeze. A State Department official, who also demanded anonymity, refused to specify a length but said in response to a question that two years would be too short.

The meeting is scheduled to hear a report by ElBaradei focusing on Iran’s nuclear program, including its decision to deny information requested by U.N. inspectors on diagrams related to nuclear weapons and other issues and ongoing enrichment plans that include setting up thousands of uranium-enriching centrifuges later this year.

“We have not seen indication of diversion of … material to nuclear weapons or other explosive devices,” ElBaradei said. “However, there are still a number of important uncertainties that need to be clarified.

“Unfortunately, the picture is not very clear as to the scope of the program and as to the nature of the program,” he said, alluding to documents, past experiments and activities that could be used to develop nuclear arms.

The last board meeting sent the complete Iran file to the Security Council. This week’s meeting is scheduled to pass the ElBaradei report to the council, which then can decide whether to take action. The board was not likely to discuss Iran until Tuesday or Wednesday.

———

Associated Press Writers Edith Lederer at the United Nations and Palma Benczenleitner in Vienna contributed to this report.

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